FLORIDIANS GO TO ISRAEL TO VOLUNTEER AMERICANS DO ODD JOBS TO SHOW MORAL SUPPORT

About 50 South Florida residents, part of a volunteer group from across North America, have returned from a two-week mission in Israel designed to boost morale among citizens there.

Organized by Volunteers for Israel, a New York-based group that annually sends about 2,000 people to Israel, the latest trip was arranged in about two weeks as a show of support during recent controversies surrounding Palestinian rioting in Israeli-occupied territories.

Typically, Volunteers for Israel sends groups of about 30 people to work in hospitals, military bases and on farms, but the group that arrived in Israel on March 15 numbered more than 700.

"When the media portrayed Israel as being a villain -- and they still do -- and with the morale of Israel at such a low ebb, something had to be done to show them not everybody believes the media," said Ben Dinkes, Florida coordinator for Volunteers for Israel.

Soon after the trip was announced, about 80 Floridians asked to participate. By the time word spread, more than 1,000 people had contacted the organization's New York office.

The group included students and retirees, Jews and Christians, business executives and housewives.

For two weeks, Lester Weinberg of Delray Beach took care of senior citizens in a hospital.

"After I got back, I made up my mind I would enjoy life," said Weinberg. "Enjoy, Enjoy."

Weinberg said in order for the media and heads of state to understand the struggle of Israeli Jews they need to become educated on the history of Israel.

"We were received quite well," said Weinberg. "We made many friends. It was uplifting, we learned something."

Some volunteers said they wanted to show some solidarity between Jews in Israel and in the United States.

"The Israeli Jews are feeling abandoned because of criticism by the press and by some American Jews who said they shouldn't treat the Arabs that way," said E. Alfred Kaufman of Delray Beach

"They haven't had to cope with 10-year-olds throwing Molotov cocktails at them," said Kaufman, who worked in a hospital X-ray laboratory. "What do you do with a 10 year old? I felt I was doing some good there. It was very interesting work, fulfilling."

Everyone the group came in contact with appreciated what the volunteers were doing, said David Rubin, a retiree from Deerfield Beach.